James Webb Space Telescope (Technical Post ONLY !)

Indeed. I hadn’t read this topic until someone reported it but it is off topic for sure.
 
After repeated questions opened again, but for posts about technology or
scientific background only.
So, no discussions about naming or other borderline themes, please !
 
Selection of the first James Webb Space Telescope General Observer Scientific Programmes

www.esa.int

Selection of the first James Webb Space Telescope General Observer Scientific Programmes

The General Observer scientific observations for the NASA/ESA/CSA James Webb Space Telescope’s first year of operation have been selected. Proposals from ESA member states comprise 33% of the total number of selected proposals and correspond to 30% of the available telescope time on Webb.
www.esa.int
 
Due to issues with Ariane 5 concerning fairing separation it is likely the launch of JWST will be furthered delayed.

https://twitter.com/x/status/1392807819821428736
View: https://twitter.com/spacenews_inc/status/1392807819821428736


Ariane 5 hasn’t flown since August 2020, leading to speculation there was an issue with the rocket. Arianespace acknowledges in a statement to SpaceNews that post-flight analyses of two recent launches raised concerns about fairing separation.
Click to expand...

spacenews.com

Ariane 5 issue could delay JWST

Ongoing work to address a problem seen on two previous Ariane 5 launches has kept that launch vehicle grounded for months and could delay the high-profile launch of NASA’s James Webb Space Telescop…
spacenews.com spacenews.com

[…] industry sources familiar with the issue said that, on both the August 2020 launch and the previous Ariane launch in February 2020, the separation of the faring induced vibrations into the payload stack well above acceptable limits. Neither incident damaged any of the payloads, but raised concerns about the effect on future missions, including JWST.
Click to expand...
 
From the article:
1622624075896.png


Also from the article, on a darkly amusing note:
NASA plans to ship the telescope to the launch site by boat late this summer. (NASA is keeping precise plans vague due to concerns about piracy at sea. Seriously.) The space agency's chief of science, Thomas Zurbuchen, said Tuesday that "we don't have a lot of reserve" left in the schedule to prepare for shipment. However, he added that NASA and Webb's primary contractor, Northrop Grumman, are close to folding up the telescope and putting it into a shipping container. He said that this should happen toward the "end of August."
Click to expand...
The fact that neither the French nor American navies are in any position to provide escorts for such an important shipment speaks volumes about the current governments in Paris and Washington, methinks.
 
JWST passes launch review:

spacenews.com

JWST passes launch review

The James Webb Space Telescope is one step closer to launch after a review of its Ariane launch vehicle, while NASA continues a separate review of the name of the spacecraft itself.
spacenews.com spacenews.com

The launch date is waiting on the two Ariane 5 launches in front of it, with the first of those set for the 27th July 2021.
 
JWST is set for launch on the 18/12/2021.

September 08, 2021
RELEASE 21-113
NASA Readies James Webb Space Telescope for December Launch
NASA’s James Webb Space Telescope being prepped for shipment to its launch site.
After successful completion of its final tests, NASA’s James Webb Space Telescope is seen here being prepared for shipment to its launch site.
Credits: NASA/Chris Gunn

NASA plans to launch the James Webb Space Telescope into orbit Dec. 18, 2021, to serve as the premier deep space observatory for the next decade.

The agency set the new target launch date in coordination with Arianespace after Webb recently and successfully completed its rigorous testing regimen – a major turning point for the mission. The new date also follows Arianespace successfully launching an Ariane 5 rocket in late July and scheduling a launch that will precede Webb. The July launch was the first for an Ariane 5 since August 2020.

Webb, an international program led by NASA with its partners ESA (European Space Agency) and the Canadian Space Agency, will launch on an Ariane 5 from Europe's Spaceport in French Guiana on the northeastern coast of South America. ESA is providing the Ariane 5.

The highly complex space telescope is currently resting in its final stow configuration at Northrop Grumman’s facilities in Redondo Beach, California.

“Webb is an exemplary mission that signifies the epitome of perseverance,” said Gregory L. Robinson, Webb’s program director at NASA Headquarters in Washington. “I am inspired by our dedicated team and our global partnerships that have made this incredible endeavor possible. Together, we’ve overcome technical obstacles along the way as well as challenges during the coronavirus pandemic. I also am grateful for the steadfast support of Congress. Now that we have an observatory and a rocket ready for launch, I am looking forward to the big day and the amazing science to come.”

The Webb team is preparing for shipment operations, during which the observatory will undergo final closeout procedures and packing for its journey to the launch site. The major elements of the Ariane 5 rocket that will carry Webb into space have safely arrived in Kourou, French Guiana, from Europe.

The Webb telescope’s revolutionary technology will explore every phase of cosmic history – from within our solar system to the most distant observable galaxies in the early universe, and everything in between. Webb will reveal new and unexpected discoveries, and help humankind understand the origins of the universe and our place in it.

For further information about the Webb mission, visit:

www.webb.nasa.gov

For information about the construction and engineering of the Webb telescope, visit:

www.nasa.gov/webb
 
Go Webb GOOO ! Time to break that curse. Nauka did it, SLS is on track, VG and B.O did it, too.

This year is THE year !
 
https://twitter.com/x/status/1443253719211065344
View: https://twitter.com/jeff_foust/status/1443253719211065344


At the AAAC meeting, NASA’s Eric Smith confirms that JWST is on a boat and in transit to Kourou; on track for Dec. 18 launch.
Click to expand...

Smith also said an investigation into allegations of discriminatory practices by James Webb, linked to a petition calling for the mission’s renaming, “found no evidence at this time that warrants changing the name.” [He referred to a statement I don’t think NASA has made public.]
Click to expand...
 
NASA does not plan to rename its new $10 billion technological marvel, the James Webb Space Telescope, despite concerns that its namesake, former NASA administrator James Webb, went along with government discrimination against gay and lesbian employees in the 1950s and 1960s.

The space agency tells NPR it has investigated the matter and decided to keep the telescope's name as is, ahead of the long-awaited launch in December.

"We have found no evidence at this time that warrants changing the name of the James Webb Space Telescope," says NASA administrator Bill Nelson.
Click to expand...
www.npr.org

Shadowed by controversy, NASA won't rename its new space telescope

Some scientists say discrimination against gay and lesbian government employees during James Webb's tenure as NASA administrator should preclude him from having a telescope named in his honor.
www.npr.org www.npr.org
 
https://twitter.com/x/status/1449375672657489921
View: https://twitter.com/mims/status/1449375672657489921


Here’s one to send you for a mental loop:

The telescope so big that it that may allow us to find extraterrestrial life led directly to the manufacture of the display on which you’re probably reading this now.
www.wsj.com

How the Search for Extraterrestrial Life Helped Make Your Smartphone’s Screen Possible

To peer deeper than ever into space, NASA needed optics of unprecedented size; the technology to make them was later repurposed to manufacture the display you might be looking at this very moment.
www.wsj.com www.wsj.com



The 18, 1.32 meter-wide mirrors of the James Webb Space Telescope, to be launched into deep space this December, must all be smooth to within a few angstroms (can’t be off by more than a few atoms in thicknesss).

When NASA stipulated this 20+ years ago, it was impossible.



Tinsley optics, which had already made the corrective lenses for the Hubble Space Telescope, which then brought us decades of stunning images from deep space, bid on polishing these mirrors to a then unheard-of level of perfection.



Fast forward to 2012. Tinsley is winding down production of the James Webb telescope mirrors. But what to do with the purpose-built equipment for polishing these mirrors to unheard-of perfection?



Enter Coherent, the laser company.

Coherent, and a competitor or two, make the schoolbus-size “linebeam” systems that help make near-perfect sheets of silicon, on which OLED and some other displays are made.

They needed giant optics.

Like those on the James Webb.



So! NASA asks the impossible in order to satisfy human curiosity. (Are we alone in the universe?)

And they fund the development of the tech they need. And that leads to economical production of the phone displays we all stare at too many hours a day.



How often does this happen? How much of our modern world do we owe to NASA (and to be fair, DoD) funding “crazy” research to solve problems with no immediate commercial application?

It’s happened thousands of times.

Everything from the DustBuster to the internet are the result.
Click to expand...
 
"Technicians were preparing to attach Webb to the launch vehicle adapter, which is used to integrate the observatory with the upper stage of the Ariane 5 rocket," NASA said in a blog post. "A sudden, unplanned release of a clamp band—which secures Webb to the launch vehicle adapter—caused a vibration throughout the observatory."
Click to expand...

arstechnica.com

An “incident” with the James Webb Space Telescope has occurred

NASA is leading an anomaly review board to investigate and conduct additional testing.
arstechnica.com arstechnica.com
 
TomcatViP said:
"Technicians were preparing to attach Webb to the launch vehicle adapter, which is used to integrate the observatory with the upper stage of the Ariane 5 rocket," NASA said in a blog post. "A sudden, unplanned release of a clamp band—which secures Webb to the launch vehicle adapter—caused a vibration throughout the observatory."
Click to expand...

arstechnica.com

An “incident” with the James Webb Space Telescope has occurred

NASA is leading an anomaly review board to investigate and conduct additional testing.
arstechnica.com arstechnica.com
Click to expand...
It sometimes feels like JWST is cursed!!!
 

Similar threads

Please donate to support the forum.

Back
Top Bottom